My life outside of school largely consisted of sports. I played basketball, soccer, and track for my school and for recreational leagues. Since there are practices 5-6 days a week for 2 or more hours I didn't have much time for clubs. I was involved in student government but this mostly consisted of work during educational hours with occasional after or before school meetings. The only other clubs I participated in were Model UN and Math League. Both of these met once a week or less. These extracurricular were a large part of my social and self education in my formative years for specific reasons. The sports I played contributed to the lessons of teamwork and determination. Every practice I was being molded to believe in hard work and perseverance as deciding factors in how well I performed in the activity I was taking part in. In every game I was learning the importance of believing in the people around me, to contribute to the larger goal at hand. I was also taught what it means to have be dependent of others while they are equally dependent on me. This is extremely profound because of how frequently we must rely on others when working in a working class environment. Being the Vice President of my class put me in a leadership position that was foreign to me before high school. I learned what it meant to speak for the many and make decisions based on the needs and wants of my constituents. This is incredibly important for anyone in a position of power such as a parent, or as, what I plan on being, a teacher. Next is the Model UN, where I learned the importance of diplomacy. I was placed in a situation where I had to work with other representatives of nations, in order to solve a collective problem. This is a strategy that I will use throughout my life when decisions are being made by myself and others of the same level of power. Finally, the math league was mainly supplemental learning for math classes and helped me learn the joy of learning on my own, for no other reward than knowledge.
My family played a grand role in how I performed in my outside of school activities. My father was my basketball coach throughout my life and my mother was respectively her own high school class' president. My brothers were in the math league and Model UN, and I followed in their footsteps when deciding what clubs to join. My family support system allowed me to look to the past and learn about the successes and failures they had made, in order to make the most of my opportunities. I found that it was easier to ask questions about the correct way to go about a problem as opposed to having to learn from my own mistakes. This doesn't mean I didn't make any mistakes, but they were limited to new challenges and times when I refused to listen to my elders.
My studies in someways suffered because of the volume of outside of school work but ultimately I became a much better, and more efficient learner. I had to learn how to distinguish between knowledge that is needed and knowledge that is supplemental in order to minimize my time spend on studying. I learned that in order to succeed in school I needed to learn how to learn instead of just the material in front of me. This was taught to me through limited hours to study and by the way I had to participate in the extracurricular. In math league I didn't need to memorize every problem on a test but I needed to be able to work through a problem using prior knowledge and skills I already knew. In Model UN I had to know the policies of my country and the overall status in order to make decisions that may not be exact to what the country would do, but would in fact benefit my country in a way that solves a problem.
My life outside of school is a main reason I am the student I am today. Through these experiences I learned more than I ever did in the class room. It is because of these experiences that I plan on being a teacher when I graduate. I want to help students not only by teaching in a way I found most helpful but also I want to be there for them outside of the classroom, whether it be in a club setting or in a sport setting.
My family played a grand role in how I performed in my outside of school activities. My father was my basketball coach throughout my life and my mother was respectively her own high school class' president. My brothers were in the math league and Model UN, and I followed in their footsteps when deciding what clubs to join. My family support system allowed me to look to the past and learn about the successes and failures they had made, in order to make the most of my opportunities. I found that it was easier to ask questions about the correct way to go about a problem as opposed to having to learn from my own mistakes. This doesn't mean I didn't make any mistakes, but they were limited to new challenges and times when I refused to listen to my elders.
My studies in someways suffered because of the volume of outside of school work but ultimately I became a much better, and more efficient learner. I had to learn how to distinguish between knowledge that is needed and knowledge that is supplemental in order to minimize my time spend on studying. I learned that in order to succeed in school I needed to learn how to learn instead of just the material in front of me. This was taught to me through limited hours to study and by the way I had to participate in the extracurricular. In math league I didn't need to memorize every problem on a test but I needed to be able to work through a problem using prior knowledge and skills I already knew. In Model UN I had to know the policies of my country and the overall status in order to make decisions that may not be exact to what the country would do, but would in fact benefit my country in a way that solves a problem.
My life outside of school is a main reason I am the student I am today. Through these experiences I learned more than I ever did in the class room. It is because of these experiences that I plan on being a teacher when I graduate. I want to help students not only by teaching in a way I found most helpful but also I want to be there for them outside of the classroom, whether it be in a club setting or in a sport setting.